Brenda Hanson, LSCSW, LISW

Brenda Hanson is a licensed social worker with more than 41 years of clinical experience. She focuses on helping people facing depression, anxiety, trauma, grief, and major life transitions. Brenda aims to create a calm, respectful space where people can talk through painful feelings and find clearer direction.

She uses practical methods that help people change day-to-day habits and thoughts. That work often includes building better ways to handle stress, improve sleep, and manage emotions like anger or shame. Brenda also supports people working through career changes, relationship struggles, addiction concerns, and questions about identity and self-worth.

Brenda draws on approaches such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Attachment-Based Therapy to guide sessions. She combines focused skills practice with empathetic listening so clients can try new coping strategies between meetings. Over long experience she has developed a flexible style that adapts to what each person needs in the moment.

She also works with concerns tied to aging and geriatric issues, caregiver stress, chronic illness, and life-stage changes. Those concerns are addressed alongside related topics like grief, chronic pain, codependency, and caretaking roles. Brenda helps people clarify values and make decisions that fit their current life demands.

Brenda holds Kansas LSCSW and Iowa LISW credentials. Sessions are conducted in English and she practices from Kansas. To begin, prospective clients use the site Start Therapy button and complete a short matching questionnaire before scheduling.

How therapy approaches guide online work

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and choose actions that match their values. ACT is useful for anxiety, low mood, and coping with life changes by focusing on what matters most. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at the link between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and teaches practical exercises to change patterns that maintain anxiety or depression. Attachment-Based Therapy centers on how early relationships shape current emotional responses and can help with intimacy, abandonment concerns, and relationship patterns.

Finding the right approach is often part of the work itself. The therapist will talk with the client about goals, preferences, and what has or has not worked before, and then jointly decide which methods to prioritize. That makes therapy a collaborative process rather than a one-size-fits-all prescription.

The original profile does not list specific session formats, so confirm available options before booking. Online therapy can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy life by removing travel time and allowing shorter check-ins when needed. It can also let people continue work while handling caregiving or health challenges and supports follow-up work between meetings through tools and exercises suggested by the therapist.